The Glaciermen #11: Veneer

Early access prepublication manuscripts of "The Glaciermen"

A few questions get answered today, but will it make up for the number of new ones that get raised? I guess that’s up to you to decide.

(Link to previous segment if you missed it, and a link to the beginning, if you’re new).

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Veneer

The cramp in Lee’s ribs throbbed. He had been running as fast as he could for the past ten minutes. His mouth was dry, each breath a rasp, and the frozen air stung his lungs bitterly with each expansion of his diaphragm. His thirst had returned as well, and he licked at his crackled lips as he ran.

Aguta had quickly outpaced Lee in the initial sprint away from the cavern, so after nearly losing the boy in the twisting tunnels, the blue man slowed his pace just enough for him to keep up. They ran together, Aguta checking periodically to make sure the boy was still with him, urging him to move faster with frequent aggressive gestures. Lee had little choice but to keep up, as the glow from the blue man’s skin was the only source of light in the blackness of the tunnel.

Lee’s ribs pulsed again, the surge of burning pain sending him stumbling to the ice. He thrust his hands out to catch his fall, scraping them badly as he slid against the floor of the tunnel. He lay breathing for a moment before pushing himself up to his knees. His palms left marks of blood on the ice where his skin had been scoured off by the rough surface. He tried to stand, legs as heavy as lead. As he rose a cramp seized his thigh, and he collapsed back onto the floor.

Lee looked up at Aguta, desperate. His vision was beginning to darken around the edges, and the occasional floating blip scampered across his field of view. There was no way he could keep running—they would catch him and kill him, and probably also Aguta, who was now peering back down the tunnel they had come from. The blue light emanating from his skin dissipated into the darkness of the passage behind them. Soon another blue glow would appear as the tunlaq inevitably found their trail and closed the gap.

Lee groaned as Aguta grabbed him under the armpits and hoisted him onto his feet. Aguta wrinkled his brow while surveying the state of the wobbling boy. Steadying Lee with one arm, he reached into his pouch and retrieved a pinch of a dry, fibrous substance. He then shoved it into into Lee’s mouth with a firmness that left no room for protest, wedging it between Lee’s lower lip and his front teeth. As soon the unsavory lump of fibers touched his gums, Lee felt a jolt of mental clarity, pupils dilating wide, and the blackness at edges of his vision drew back.

Nodding at the visible effect, Aguta then snaked his free arm underneath Lee’s legs and hefted him over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, turning to continue along the tunnel at a brisk trot. Soon they arrived at another cavern, a terminus with three other tunnels coming together with theirs. Unlike the previous cavern, this one was illuminated only by a solitary blue torch in the center. Instead of a pit, the cavern was filled with piles of equipment. Leather sacks full of unknown contents, stacked cages made of bones, and coils of rope lay among sleds and various other implements. The poor light from the single torch cast clawing, pitch-black shadows throughout the cavern.

Aguta set Lee down between two stacks of cages and began searching through the pouch on his belt. He pulled out a shell and began scraping it along his skin. Lee watched dumbfounded as the man appeared to peel off the outer layer of his blue flesh. He looked closer and realized that Aguta was not paring himself, but rather stripping a luminescent coating from the surface of his skin. Wherever he drew the shell, bright pink skin was revealed beneath the glowing translucent slather.

He hurriedly wiped the substance from the shell onto the inside of a nearby sack, proceeding until nearly all of it had been removed from his skin. Cutting a piece from the sack, he then wiped himself down until none of the glowing substance remained. He also wiped the areas of Lee’s clothing where the coating had smeared while he was being carried. 

Then Aguta stopped, head snapping up to listen. The quiet hint of approaching footsteps drifted from the tunnel by which they had come. Aguta hurriedly piled things onto the sack until no light was visible from the glowing substance held within. Lee and the man were now shrouded in the darkness of the long shadows cast by the torch.

Aguta crouched next to Lee between the stacked cages. He held a hand to the boy’s mouth for a moment, intimating the intended message with a fierce stare before lifting his hand away. Lee nodded, and they both waited in silence.

Less than a minute later, half a dozen tunlaq jogged into the cavern. They carried spears, spikes, and rope. The largest of them, who had been at the front of the group, held up a long-fingered hand. The others stopped and looked to him. He paused, sniffing at the air.

Lee held his breath and tried to pull himself into a tight ball to take up as little space as possible. The large tunlaq, still sniffing, took a step toward toward them, yet did not move as if he could to see them in the shadows. Aguta reached to the knife at his belt, resting his hand on the hilt and stiffening, readying himself for a strike. The figure took a final, extended sniff, then paused. He lurched to the side, and before Aguta could respond, ripped an animal-hide covering off one of the sleds and plunged with his spear. Aguta flinched but ultimately held himself back, still tensed and ready.

The tunlaq lifted his spear. Skewered on the end was a disembodied forearm, likely dropped from the corpse of some poor passenger. He sniffed it, then grunted and held it out so the others could see. He pulled it from the spear point and tossed it to one of the others nearby, who deposited it in a sack which he had slung over his shoulder. Then the leader growled out what must have been several commands, as the six blue men then dispersed in pairs down the remaining three tunnels of the terminus, leaving Lee and Aguta alone.

Lee released his breath, and Aguta squatted down next to him, letting out a quiet chuckle before smacking Lee on the shoulder and giving a toothy smile. He rose and walked toward the to torch in the center of the room. Lee made to follow, but found his legs were stiffened to uselessness. He slumped back against the stack of bone cages.

The cold was settling deep into him. Lee mentally kicked himself. He had abandoned all his insulated winter clothing back in the pit when it had frozen after being soaked through with condensation—and in his excitement to leave the pit he had forgotten to bring the only dry article, the fat man’s red jacket.

Lee coughed, sending his torso convulsing intermittently with violent shivers. His entire body ached—cramps teased at his legs, cracked lips stung with every movement, and a bone-dry throat yearned for water. He could no longer feel his fingers or toes, and he had no energy left to attempt warming them, if he could even figure out how to do it again.

In the center of the cavern, Aguta grabbed the base of the torch with both hands, jerking it back and forth until it came free from the ice. He peered at the blue flame for a moment before letting out a satisfied grunt. He began to search through the various effects in the cavern, occasionally adding something to the pouch on his belt.

Lee could feel the last of the strength left in his body beginning to wane, his exhaustion overcoming even the stimulation provided by the wad in his lip. He tried to keep his eyelids open as he watched Aguta’s form move about the cavern, but it was a losing battle. As his mysterious savior finished rummaging and came toward the boy, darkness encroached upon Lee’s vision, and he drifted off.

Lee slipped in and out of consciousness, awareness coming in flashes: a blue torch next to a grimacing face, shadows playing across the wall of a tunnel as he slumped over the shoulder of a running man, darkness and pain, then the sweet relief of nothingness.

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And that’s it for now folks

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